The Internet currently allows for the free exchange of ideas and information in a manner that was unimaginable only a couple of decades ago. One such use for the Internet is as a communication medium, whether it is via one-on-one exchanges or multi-party exchanges. For example, two individuals may exchange private emails with each other. Alternatively, multiple people may participate on a public website in which they may post entries that are published for multiple people to read. Examples of such websites may include but are not limited to product/service review sites, social networks, and topical blogs.
Users of a media consumption system may purchase media files for personal use. Examples of such media files may include but are not limited to music files and video files. When such media files are obtained (and depending upon the media consumption system utilized), the purchased media files may include a limited set of sharing rights. For example when music files are purchased, the purchaser of the media file may be allowed to “share” the purchased media file (on a limited basis) with various people to whom the purchaser is connected within a social network (e.g., via a media sharing post to their media stream).
For example, these limited sharing rights may allow the purchaser to “share” the purchased media file with the recipients so that the recipients may listen to/view the shared media file a single time. Further, these limited sharing rights may be configured so that after the purchased media file is listened to/viewed, the recipient may only subsequently e.g. listen to/view a small portion of the media file (e.g. several seconds to several minutes). Accordingly, the use of such a system may allow for the controlled “viral” sharing of media files across social networks.
Unfortunately, as users of social networks often have a considerable number of “friends”, the quantity of “posts” made to their social media stream may be considerable. For example, if a user has three hundred “friends” and each of them makes two posts per day (e.g., covering topics such as what they had for breakfast to where they are going during the day), the user may be greeted with six hundred unread posts at the end of the day. Accordingly, in the event that one or two of those six-hundred posts concerns the sharing of a media file (in the limited-rights fashion described above), it is easy to see how such media sharing posts may be lost amongst all of the general posts made to the user's social media stream.